


The Last Hope

by Viktorie_the_frog



Category: Torchwood
Genre: AU, Angst, Drama, Fix-It, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Series 03 Fix-It: Children of Earth (Torchwood), Translation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:27:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22618585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viktorie_the_frog/pseuds/Viktorie_the_frog
Summary: How else could Ianto Jones survive?
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Comments: 4
Kudos: 48





	The Last Hope

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SilenaYa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilenaYa/gifts).
  * A translation of [Последняя надежда](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13764969) by [SilenaYa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilenaYa/pseuds/SilenaYa). 



> Author's:  
> It's hard to get over his death... when even the subconscious is against it and makes such dreams...  
> It was written before I watched season four. I was surprised for a long time when I realized that in the next season the plot develops around changes in the blood... and the last scene was truly a finish.
> 
> Translator's:  
> English is not my native language, this work was a huge experiment for me, feel free to tell me about any mistakes I've made!

Ianto was laying on captain’s arms, infected by a virus produced by the aliens named “456”, who decided to give a lesson to the earthlings because they dared to cross them. Didn’t give them children. Didn’t show them obedience… 

“No. Not him. No, no, no, no, Ianto, no!” Jack was paralyzed with fear of losing the most precious, the most loved and close person again. Captain’s sight rushed around the room in search of the solution. No, everything just cannot end this way! He won’t allow it, he’ll find a way out, he… 

But all of this was in vain. Harkness has seen only the fallen tables, chairs, pencils, useless now notebooks and a thousand other little things that couldn’t help in any way. 

“It’s my fault…” Jack’s voice was trembling, his eyes welled up with tears. 

“No…” Ianto squeezed out, - No… 

“Be quiet. Save your strength,” Jack didn’t let him finish, stroking his cheek. A fleeting caress. The last… No! What. Had. He. Done. 

His sight rushed around again who knows in search of what… A way out. He had to find a way out. At all costs. At least a tiny hope, at least something… 

A handbag laying on the floor, things fallen out of there: a mirror, lipstick, a mobile… Wrong! It’s all wrong!.. But his sight stubbornly headed to that bag, again and again, a desperate thought dwelled inside his head: “I’m missing something! Something important!” A notepad, lighter, disposable syringes, some ampules, a hairbrush, spilled cardboard rectangles, must be business cards… 

No, stop. Syringes! Jack felt as if he returned six months ago. 

“Tosh, we’ve found an alien thing which probably can be used for chemical analysis. More full and accurate than any Earth tech can provide at the moment. Can you help to figure out?” Gwen lent a weird elongated object that looked more like some wind instrument (like a pan flute or kuvytsi) than lab equipment. 

“Sure,” Toshiko responded. “Owen and I will work on it. Of course, if captain doesn’t mind,” and four pairs of eyes stared on Jack Harkness in anticipation. 

“Why should I mind?” captain shrugged demonstratively. “Go on, study alien tech. But remember that it may be dangerous.” 

“As if we didn’t know,” Owen snorted in response and, inviting Tosh with a nod to follow him, disappeared in the lab. She, of course, followed, giving the others a smile. 

“Now we won’t see them again until they’ll work it out,” Ianto sighed. 

“You already miss them?” Gwen wondered innocently, winding her colleague up, but he just ignored her. 

“OK, we have business too, don’t relax,” captain turned attention to himself. 

“Yes, sir!” Gwen and Ianto answered in unison, then looked at each other and laughed. Jack could only roll his eyes. 

“Jack, I think that we’ve figured it out about your last finding,” Tosh appealed to Jack weeks later, when he came to the hub after a mission. Thank god this time it was without consequences. “And now we can try to understand what makes your blood different from other people’s blood.” 

“Is it any different?” Gwen wondered instantly. 

“Not too much,” Jack winced while rolling his sleeve. He didn’t like to discuss his past and the features that made him not quite human. Correction. Not quite an ordinary human, because Jack remained a human after all. While Owen had been taking his blood for the analysis, Jack kept explaining: “Modern Earth technologies can’t pinpoint the difference, unless, of course, if not to look specifically. And even if you do, the results are still debatable. The effect of my blood on other people’s is a little bit different than a normal reaction. Besides, it’s unpredictable and mostly dangerous for who my blood is transfused to. Even despite the blood type and the Rh. So, I’ll never be able to become a donor,” Jack smiled ironically. “It also affects differently on different human diseases. It’s a lottery. Every single time. With every new person. That’s why it’d be nice to know more. Maybe, if we could understand it, we could invent a panacea for all. So far, my blood cannot be used. It’s dangerous. The result is unpredictable,” Jack repeated again. 

“Well, we’ve never looked this far before,” Tosh snorted, “Now we need to understand what is the difference and whether it actually exists. Maybe your blood wasn’t the reason for those situations we know about?” 

“Is it so?” Jack responded and headed to his office, and this meant the end of the discussion. 

“What situations?” Gwen asked just after the door closed behind Jack. 

“Nothing,” Tosh sighed and went to her own too, leaving Gwen Cooper alone with her questions. 

The memories came up in his brain just in time. It was the only chance for Jones to survive, for Jack – not to lose such a dear person. There was no other way out. Ianto was already dying, it won’t get any worse, what about better... who knows... And of course, captain dared. How couldn’t he use this last chance? How could he just sit and watch? No! 

Jack Harkness rushed to the syringes, glancing briefly at the ampules (insulin – God save the diabetics!), ripped the packaging and with his fading strength stuck the needle into his vein. The blood was gathering slowly. Terribly slowly. Captain had already cursed everything, when, finally, the syringe was full. Not losing a second, he stuck the needle into Ianto’s vein and diluted his blood with his own: dangerous, unpredictable, but giving at least a tiny hope for a miracle. For life. That the future will be. For both of them... 

Coming back to life was hard and painful. Well, as always. But this time pain wasn’t just physical, it was also mental. Jack didn’t know had he made it, but he hoped. Hoped for entire forty seconds, until he saw Gwen, sitting by the body. The body of Ianto Jones, the man who was closer to Jack than anyone else, whom he managed to fall in love with during their acquaintance. 

After hugging Gwen, captain let himself grief too. To mourn the man whom he tried to, but could not save. Whom he ruined. But there was too little time even for grief. It was necessary to act. And Jack didn’t fail. The aliens were expelled, but at what cost... Once again Jack Harkness had lost hope, again... was alone again... 

In the evening, when everything had ended, captain decided to get drunk. To drink the shit out of himself, to neither remember nor feel anything, to stop feeling that emptiness in his heart that was corroding him from the inside, and he would do so if not the call. An ordinary phone call from Gwen, who he couldn’t ignore. No, not after everything they’ve been through together. 

“Listening,” Jack responded emotionlessly, putting the phone to his ear... and didn’t understand what she told to him straightaway. Alive? Who? In coma? The heart barely beats and that’s why... what? Looks like hibernation? Accidentally discovered? Could’ve been dissected alive? 

With every new word, Jack’s heart pounded faster, and in the end, when he realized the point, the pulsation started somewhere in his throat. Captain could only say “Where?” and “I’m coming”, he didn’t have enough strength for anything more... 

Jack appeared on the doorstep of the hospital in the record time and rushed to the ward so quickly that no one had time to stop him. And only after seeing Ianto connected to all that medical equipment he believed that all of this had been true. That Jones, his dear Ianto, was alive... that there was still a chance to fix everything... 

“I’m glad that they didn’t dissect him,” dropped Gwen standing by the bed where Ianto was laying. “But how was it possible not to detect the pulse, even as rare and weak as his?” 

“Just everyone was sure that he was dead, so... didn’t bother,” the pain and shock from the experienced could’ve been read in Jack’s voice, but Gwen decided to pretend that she didn’t notice it. It had to be so. Jack wasn’t the kind of person who’d like his weakness to be noticed at the moment when he really was on the verge. 

“Should I bring you anything?” miss Cooper changed the topic, squeezing her friend’s shoulder. It was all that she could afford herself to do to show that she was there for him and that he can count on her “Coffee maybe? Or something more serious? When have you last eaten?” 

“Coffee would be enough, thank you,” Jack answered quietly, not even looking in her direction. It still seemed to him that if he took his sight off Ianto even for a moment he would stop breathing. It was stupid, but captain couldn’t get rid of this feeling. 

“Alright,” Gwen smiled. “I’ll be back soon then,” and went out, leaving Jack alone with the man whom, as she had long suspected, he loved. Strongly and sincerely. 

For several days now, without leaving, captain Jack was sitting at the bedside of Ianto, who still was unconscious. Every day Jack feared more and more that Ianto Jones will never wake up, that he will never see his smile, hear his voice, look into such dear eyes, work with him, fool around... 

Ianto could stay in coma forever, and if so, Jack didn’t know what would he do. But captain wasn’t used to giving up, and that’s why he was sitting next to him now, hoping for the best and trying to figure out some way of helping him. They had already done everything they could. Antitoxin, specifically designed in the chemical lab, judging by the blood analyses, had dealt with the virus, and the only thing to do now was to wait. To wait and to hope on the strength of Jones’ body and his willpower. 

“Ianto, I believe in you,” Jack whispered, holding Jones’ hand and gripping it tightly. “You’re strong, you can make it. You’ve got to wake up, you hear? For me... for all of us.” 

Closing his eyes, Jack imagined for a second that it’s all over. No! It’s just a weakness. Everything’s going to be fine. Ianto will get better. He should believe, and everything will be alright. 

And the fingers in Jack’s hand had moved slightly, and he heard such a dear and loved voice. 

“Captain?” mister Jones whispered quietly... 

“Ianto...” Jack responded hoarsely. He was breathless, a lump appeared in his throat. Wery slowly Jack moved his instantly wettened sight from their hands to the face of a Welshman laying next to him. “You’re finally awake.” 

“I...” 

But Jack didn’t let him finish. 

“How are you?” he asked, concerned, gripping Ianto’s hand more tightly between his. “Anything hurts? Does your body work? Everything alright with your memory?” 

“Jack, calm down, I’m fine,” Ianto said quietly. “Well, as fine as it can be in this situation...” and grinned. The way only he could do it: kindly, more looking like a smile, even though a very weak one. 

Captain pressed his forehead against Ianto’s hand, which he still was holding. 

“You’ve really scared me.” 

“Sorry.” 

“The only thing that matters now is that you’re alive,” Jack said meeting his sight with Ianto’s and smiling again. Just as weak and defenseless, opening his feelings to the man whom he had only recently thought he had lost forever, whom he loved to tremble, who was dearer to him than anyone else... And Ianto responded, he just couldn’t do otherwise. 

The smile for the smile, hand in hand, eyes to eyes, lips touching lips... 

Everything became clear that day, without any words, and two hearts started to beat for each other...


End file.
